Whatcha Doin' Wednesday

Here's a card I made with Paper Smooches stamps...couldn't love them more. Kim Hughes is the brainchild of these and looovvee her handwriting stamps. The cursive and the print are so fun and unique! I tried using my Halloween stamps for just anytime. I think the colors help and I think the inside will be a Happy Birthday greeting for a niece. Not sure yet. Maybe a Congrats sentiment, cuz I've got a lot of grad cards still to make. I could put a grad cap on the ghostie!

I stamped the ghost on vellum and mounted her on printed paper. The papers are all Bella Blvd and the card is a die cut card from Studio G. I used Hero Arts Bubblegum mid-tone ink for the edges and the bat.

Ever use your holiday stamps for other reasons? What else are you up to?

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

Birthday Sandvich

That's not a typo, that's a thing. Sandvich is how you spell sandwich in Team Fortress 2...how do I know? The son, of course. Ben wanted a Sandvich Cake for his 13th birthday party, so I attempted it. There are plenty of these cakes on the web for inspiration, but I didn't want to use fondant since I don't like how it tastes. You can pin the picture if you have a sandvich cake in your future by clicking the pin it button at the top of the blog and choosing the picture you want.

The bread is just a cooled square white cake cut diagonally. The brown edge of the cake is perfect for the bread crust. I inverted one of the diagonal cake pieces (for the top piece of bread) and gently scraped with a knife to remove the browned cake and reveal the white underneath. 

While the cake baked, I made the toppings. The cheese is made from yellow Starburst candies, molded like clay to cheese shape, and the tomatoes are red chocolate candy melts from Wilton, melted and piped into circles on waxed paper. When they hardened, it was easy to transfer to the bottom cake layer.

The lunchmeat and lettuce are just buttercream, tinted pink and green respectively. I probably should've  made the frosting a bit stiffer if I wanted the lettuce to look frilly, but it worked okay and Ben was happy. The olive is made of Mike and Ikes all squished and formed into an olive and the a Mike and Ike sliced for the pimento. They stick together without icing.

The cupcake toppers are just the characters from the game, printed and circle punched, then taped to toothpicks. Nothing too fancy here, as he is a boy and cares not a fig for fancy. Which is lucky for me!

All in all, it turned out nicely, although the candy melts and Starburst made the white cake hard to cut for serving. I only used half the cake mix, so I could've served the leftover cake with just icing and no toppings, but hindsight is 20/20, so they say. 

These all looked better in my head, but that's okay, I made the son happy and that's all that matters, right?! 

Happiest of Mondays,

Chark

Fun Food Friday

If you haven't seen Nerdy Nummies over on YouTube, you gotta check it out if you're a nerd, in the best sence of the word. Y'know, you like Dr. Who, Star Trek, The Avengers and cool stuff like that.  :)

This young woman isn't a professional baker, but her food is all kinds of fun. Here's a picture of the Tardis gingerbread house she made with working light. Cool!

Here's the sandvich cake I'm making this weekend for the son. He loves Team Fortress 2 and apparently, the "sandvich" is important to the game. Whatevs. All I know is that I somehow have to make a cake without all the fondant she uses, as I don't like the taste. I'll post a pic on Monday, wish me luck in making something that comes close to this...

again, without the fondant, which makes decorating a cake much easier, but ickier imo. Does anyone like the taste of fondant? Just wondering.

Have a Great Weekend!
Chark

A friend got me this Hero Arts card making set from Target, not even knowing I love Hero Arts (she's not a stamper). Of course, I had to jump right in and make something and since it's an owl set and I have a hundred graduations (give or take) to attend this spring, I made grad cards. Here's one that I made for my nephew. So easy, but still professional-looking. I added the grad cap and diploma brads from the dollar spot at Target. The quote was from some graduation paper I had. I inked the edges in Distress Ink Broken China and it was all set. I added some of the included rhinestones to a niece's card, but for this one, I kept the bling off. Aren't the owls adorable? They're included too, as well as sentiment stamps that I didn't use for this.

The word balloon is hand drawn and the stamped sentiment is a Hero Arts set of tiny wooden stamps that I've had for a long while. 

Happy Wednesday and Owl See You back here on Friday! 

Chark

And Keep an Eye on Staircases, They Like to Change

This is a quote from Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone movie, and I thought it'd be a good one for today's post. I've taken a composition book from Target and used Creative Imaginations themed paper to make an altered notebook for my goddaughter. She's graduating soon and loves all things Harry Potter, so along with money, I thought a special notebook was in order.

I've trimmed the HP themed paper to fit the notebook front, wrap around the spine and about a third of the back of the notebook. I secured with the tape glider. I did an edge with Mod-Podge, but didn't like how it wrinkled, so I stuck to the tape adhesive...sorry, I couldn't resist the pun!

I also cut some paper to fit a bit smaller inside the covers and adhered it the same way. I added potion stickers from the same paper collection and the broom. snitch and 9 3/4 circle. Inside the back cover, I attached a ribbon to act as a bookmark that I decked out with bling—metal tag, black pearls and a little silver key that came with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic accessories I found at Michael's. I added a metal sticker that says "discover" as well.

The ribbon should be adhered to the cover of the comp book, then covered with the scrapbook paper because I added it on top of the paper and am worrying it will end up tearing it. I see a re-do in my future. Ah well, live and learn!

Here's a look at the card I made for my mom from the kids. They did one of the cards that came on the paper entitled "My Favorite Time With Grandma" and adhered it in the card. She loved that part. It's by Authentique and it's lovely paper. The flip side is for Grandpas.

have a great week!

Chark

Friendly Friday

I thought I'd post some information on some wonderfully informative blogs full of information and creativity, along with a does of inspiration. Cuz I'm friendly like that!

The first, by virtue of hers being the first artsy blog I ever visited, is Jennifer McGuire's. She is a fabulous designer, a great artist, teacher and sweet person. I got to take a few classes of hers and love her style. Her videos are the best!

The second is perhaps the most fun blog. Her writing style is fresh and funny and she is also extremely talented, so Just Jingle is a must visit!

Okay, here's an oddball kind of place that, if you love Halloween or anything spooky, you've got to visit. These designers have mad skills and creepy challenges. It's a Stephen King challenge right now, so head over to Haunted Design House if you're feeling brave. Mwah, hah, ha!

And, lastly, a creative stamping company with a great blog, Viva Las VegaStamps is full of cool ideas and unique stamps. If you're a Dr. Who fan, they have some fabulous Whovian rubber stamps that I just purchased. Here's  a work in progress with one of them.

Thanks for stopping by, if you wanna be friendly and share your blog link in the comments, I'll stop by!
Chark

CAS-ual Fridays on Thursday

Over at CAS-ual Fridays, the current challenge is a Bingo style one. You choose three categories across, diagonal or down and then make a card with those three elements. I chose the left side going down. BINGO! 

It's for a family friend who is turning 8 and loves Legos. As my now-teen son has approximately 900,000 Legos, I have collected some Lego themed paper over the years. The leftover piece I used was exactly the right size and shape for this challenge, so that was lucky. 

The sentiment is a sticker by SRM. They are the perfect stickers for a lot of projects, they're clear and come in a variety of colors and themes. I added an eyelet to the star, mounted the paper on yellow and called it a day. CAS, or clean and simple, is a great style, although you really have to focus on design and placement of your elements. I'm working on it!

Have a good day and enter if you like great prizes and fun challenges!

Chark